The present invention relates to antioxidant compositions for use in such as food and cosmetic products to protect the food and cosmetic products from oxidation and to processes for obtaining such antioxidant compositions, and more particularly, the present invention relates to obtaining antioxidant compositions from olives.
In a conventional process, olives are treated by pressing and three phases are obtained: an aqueous phase, a lipid phase and a solid phase. In such a process, the aqueous phase and the solid phase are removed. Water-soluble antioxidants are thus lost in the solid phase and also in the aqueous phase. Furthermore, these antioxidants are so dilute in the aqueous phase that even if it were desired, they could no longer be recovered.
Moreover, the aqueous phase, whose volume is approximately four times greater than the volume of the lipid phase, has to be treated in a sewage treatment plant as waste water.
Thus, A. Uzzan (Manuel des corps gras--ISBN 2-85206-662/9--1992--763-768) describes in particular a process for producing olive oil by pressing, in which the olives are cleaned, worked and then passed into a hydraulic press so as to separate the liquid phase and the solid phase. At this stage, the liquid phase is divided by decantation or by centrifugation into its two constituents: the aqueous phase containing the water-soluble substances in the olive and the olive oil. These two constituents are once again centrifuged so as, on the one hand, to collect the clarified and purified oil and, on the other hand, to extract the residual oil contained in the aqueous phase. This aqueous phase as well as the previous solid phase, which are still rich in antioxidants, are removed.